Now, we aren’t a big gun-game household. My parents didn’t let me play gun games, and I am just not a fan of them as a result. There are a lot of games with guns or blasters, and Sugar Mess – Let’s Play Jolly Battle, is one such game, however the blaster shoots scoops of ice cream and chocolate bars, so it’s sort of just a dessert water-gun!
Sugar Mess – Let’s Play Jolly Battle is an action game filled with other mini-games, wrapped in a story about not caring about your best friend. You play as The Prince, who has created a few different robots to help them. The first robot you created was your best friend, until you didn’t really need to play with them, or hang out with them anymore, as you’d created a better robot that was bigger and more suited for your needs.
Your smaller, older Robot friend wants revenge on you for discarding them this way. They have created a bunch of strange, weirdly-similar-looking-to-you, pastry bots that are now attacking you, all coming from a massive volcano. There is a lot to unpack here!
When it comes to Sugar Mess‘ gameplay there is a lot of fun to be had. You’ll mostly be using your blaster to defeat a bunch of pastries, normally while riding in a cart moving forward on a track, or while standing in front of a massive scene where pastries fly around you and appear around the scenery.
There are a lot of pastries too! Circle pastries that quickly fly at you, or start throwing bubblegum lollipop tops at you! Wafer cookies take more than one hit, and can end up throwing a bunch of marshmallows or huge hard candies at you. There is just a lot going on! Some don’t even attack you at all, but instead, have a red or green glowing orb on them that you can shoot to get a power-up. You can use the audio cues to hear where these pastry enemies are coming from and how close they are, which is the key to getting 100% on the levels.
Power-ups come in the form of health or rockets. Rockets defeat everything on the screen, so they are good to save when you are in a pinch! You will also need to reload your blaster, which can be done by grabbing ammo from your console with your power-ups and put them into the blaster. All of these feel really smooth and make sense, especially the placement. You can also view your health via a watch on your left hand.
Along with the blaster levels in Sugar Mess – Let’s Play Jolly Battle, occasionally, there are more arcade-based levels to give you a bit of a break from blasting through pastries. You need to take on your giant Robot friend, hitting specific targets around them and playing through a rhythm-bashing game felt really fun! These mini-games can also be played at any time using the arcade machine.
In between the various levels, the level select menu itself is well worth a mention! You will be looking at a giant table, showcasing the map of the world, and can pick up The Prince and move them to the level you want to play. Then, a book opens up and gives you a few pop-up pages showing the story, before you dive in. This also provides a good break between the levels.
Sugar Mess – Let’s Play Jolly Battle feels like a colorful, fun and engaging VR game, with a lot to offer. I do appreciate the sound design and the breaks between moving on the cart! Everything feels balanced, and the story itself is one that I know younger ones will find very engaging as well.
Sugar Mess – Let’s Play Jolly Battle can be wishlisted on Steam.
